Daniel flew behind a burned bookshelf of Vlad's library, listening to the other party guests screaming. He was panting, struggling to gather his thoughts between attacks from Vlad and ghost-catching attempts from his parents. Nearby, a wall shuddered and fell, no longer able to hold its weight, while creating more chaos in the destroyed manor. Smoke hung in the air and polluted every breath Daniel struggled for. His arms were burning from exhaustion and his ghostly powers.
He had meant for this to be a quick fight, to simply defeat Vlad, his parent's old college pal and his uncle-figure. Vlad had also turned out to be that evil ghost he had fought with the other night just before the reunion party. Though Daniel couldn't remember many details about that fight after the ghost, Vlad, had beat him to a pulp.
The short fight was now causing major disaster to everyone in the building, and the screaming only grew in volume when the wall behind him exploded.
"Don't bother hiding, Daniel. I know all of your little hiding spots." Vlad shot a blast of pink ghost energy at Daniel, who jumped and landed in the center of the room.
"Why are you doing this? What have I done to you? What has my family done?" Danny may have been in his Phantom form, but he wasn't worried about his parents hearing anything over the screams and shots.
"I've already been through this, Daniel. I am in no mood to repeat myself." Vlad replicated into four and flew at Danny.
"What are you talking about?!" Danny dodged two plasma blasts but was struck by the third. His torso ached horribly now as he instinctively covered his head from the fourth blast. He heard the blast hit something but didn't feel more pain. When Danny looked up, he noticed a green ecto-shield formed around him. "What? How-"
"No time to question dumb luck, Daniel." Vlad shot a stronger plasma blast at Danny, just as his ecto-shield vanished in his confusion.
In seconds, Danny found himself against the far wall of the library, one leg broken and a wooden beam impaled in the side of his ribcage. Panic rose in his mind, Danny let out a strangled gasp of fear and moved his hands frantically to find something to do.
"Don't bother healing yourself." Vlad raised his hand, an energy blast primed in his palm. "I'll just finish you off again."
Danny never felt the pain, but everything exploded into darkness in seconds.